Page 104 (1/2)

As may be inferred from the tone of his conversation with Winterborne,

he had lately plunged into abstract philosophy with much zest; perhaps

his keenly appreciative, modern, unpractical mind found this a realh his aims were desultory,

Fitzpiers's mental constitution was not without its admirable side; a

keen inquirer he honestly was, even if the h the trees of Hintock, lighted rank literatures

of emotion and passion as often as, or oftener than, the books and

materiel of science

But whether he meditated the Muses or the philosophers, the loneliness

of Hintock life was beginning to tell upon his impressionable nature

Winter in a solitary house in the country, without society, is

tolerable, nay, even enjoyable and delightful, given certain

conditions, but these are not the conditions which attach to the life

of a professional man who drops down into such a place by mere

accident They were present to the lives of Winterborne, Melbury, and

Grace; but not to the doctor's They are old association--an alraphical or historical acquaintance with every object,

animate and inanimate, within the observer's horizon He one by, whose feet have

traversed the fields which look so gray froh has turned those sods from time to time; whose hands

planted the trees that form a crest to the opposite hill; whose horses